The Clone's Hero (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

First Raid (Clone Force 99 pt3)

A longer leash means more freedom, which can be synonymous with more trouble

The Bad Batch flew to the location of the mountain resort as soon as the meeting was over. It didn't take long for them to arrive at the old building and sneak up to its entrance.

"Clone Force 99, heading towards the front entrance," Hunter spoke into his comm.

"Hear you loud and clear. Be careful," Steele answered from the other end.

"Good to know you care about us, sir," Hunter said before commencing the operation.

Tech got a full scan of the building. He summarized his findings to the batch. "There are 29 floors but only the top 4 are accessible. The others are in ruins. Each floor has the same layout: courtyard, bedroom suites, restrooms, and dining areas. Except for the top, that's the penthouse suite."

Hunter looked at the exterior of the building then turned to Wrecker and Crosshair. "We dunno who we'll encounter so be prepared to switch from stun to kill in an instant. Try to make it one bolt per enemy. And be fast in clearing each floor, we can't have any potential Separatists escaping."

The two clones nodded. Satisfied, Hunter stood up. "Alright, let's go in."

The squad headed inside and towards the stairwell. Everything was rather quiet. Each storey they passed, they could see the ruins of the floor behind the dusty window of the exit door.

Eventually, the squad reached the first accessible level. There, they could see a Rhodian standing with an entourage of droids. The clones crept towards the group and Hunter signalled for Crosshair to take aim.

The Rhodian was speaking into a comm. "...he killed himself, or at least I hope he did. Anyways, the coordinates on his durasheet should be long-gone before—UGH!"

Crosshair sniped the Rhodian in the leg, causing him to fall over. The droids jerkily turned around and aimed their blasters.

"Intruders!"

Wrecker and Crosshair immediately fired before the droids had the chance to attack. Tech kept an active inspection of the entire floor to ensure they don't get ambushed.

Hunter dashed to the fallen Rhodian and dragged him behind cover. He then pressed a blaster to his head. "Are you Separatist?"

"No, I'm just a relayer!" The Rhodian shakily answered.

"Where's the datachip?"

The Rhodian was quiet. Then without warning, he pulled out a small blaster from his back pocket. But Hunter caught sight of that, and immediately pulled his trigger, killing the Rhodian.

He got to his feet as Wrecker took care of the final droid. Tech evaluated the destroyed clankers. "These droids have been reprogrammed. They fight for the specific Separatists we're looking for now, not the CIS as a whole."

"Now that's one thing we can report back to the commanders," Hunter chimed before heading towards the stairwell. "C'mon, we got 3 more floors to clear."

On the next floor, the clones were immediately met with hostilities. Reprogrammed droids opened fire almost immediately on them and didn't stop until they were shot down.

A female Roonan underling took cover in the dining hall while shouting into her comm. "We've been compromised, clones are here! You need to wipe out everything and notify base! NOW!"

Some inaudible words were heard from comm before Crosshair shot it out of the Roonan's hand. She jumped in response.

Crosshair kept her at blasterpoint. He noticed she was glancing at a handheld blaster right across from her. He knew what she was about to do.